The Woman from the Sewers
by PygmyCritter
Summary: The Torchwood team have been tracking the recent increase in Rift activity. Meanwhile, Annie has found woman who seems to be suffering from amnesia.  AU for both TW and BH.
1. Chapter 1

"There's more rift activity this morning, Jack." Tosh informed Jack as he entered the hub.

"Been a lot of it lately." he said as he stopped and looked over her shoulder. "But not much of anything coming through."

"Not a bad thing." she pointed out. "A few less weevils isn't something to be sad over."

"No, but we don't know what's causing it." he replied as he started moving around.

"Should we go have a look?" Ianto asked, handing each of them a cup of tea.

"How many have there been and where?" Jack asked Tosh as he took a sip.

"Twelve since 5 am." she tapped away at her keyboard. "Eight of them are here in Cardiff, two in Barry Island and two in Swansea."

"We can split up." Ianto suggested. "I can check out a few here in Cardiff, Owen can go to Barry..."

"I can go to Swansea." Gwen put in as she and Owen moved in and joined the group.

"Why do I get sent off to Barry?" Owen asked.

"It's not as though you're being sent off to the ends of the earth." Ianto pointed out. "It's a thirty minute drive, forty-five minutes at most."

"That's not the point." Owen grumbled, still feeling a bit tired and hungover from his night out the previous evening.

"The drive will do you good. Get some fresh air." Jack said with a smile. "Okay then, Owen to Barry Island. Gwen to Swansea and that leaves Ianto, Tosh and I to check things out here."

"Great." Owen groaned as he looked over Tosh's shoulder and got the coordinates before heading out.

"What's with him?" Jack asked, looking around.

"Not a clue." Gwen said as the others shrugged. "He's not often the chattiest person ever."

"Well, whatever it is, hopefully he's over it soon." Tosh said as she slipped her leather jacket on. "He's not a lot of fun to be around when he's like this."

* * *

><p>The disheveled woman fumbled with the manhole cover and, with what felt like her last ounce of strength, it gave way and let in a flood of sunlight nearly knocking the weak woman down the ladder she was perched on and back into the sewers.<p>

Gathering herself after letting her eyes adjust to the light, she poked her head out of the hole and looked around. She appeared to be in the car park of some shop. That's all she could tell. It didn't look at familiar to her. Nothing did. Dragging herself up and out of the hole, dragging the cover back after her, she forced herself to her feet and looked around again. Nothing. She recognized nothing around her.

Moving away from the car park, she started heading down the street, trying to find something, anything, that might tell her where she was.

People quickly made way for her as she stumbled along. She looked like hell. The blue jeans and t-shirt she wore were torn, wet and dirty. She herself was covered in mud and three different kinds of sludge and slime and wreaking of the sewers.

"Disgusting." one woman muttered as she crossed to the other side of the street, sneering at the staggering figure.

The woman walked along, hugging herself, oblivious to the gazes and comments as she wandered into a park. She quickly sat at the first park bench she came to and looked around once more. She was in an unfamiliar place, she was alone and worst of all, she had no idea who she was. Giving into the fear and dread she was feeling, she began to sob, her filthy face buried in her hands, long, dark hair matted with various bits of the sewer that she could not shake.

"Are you okay?" a woman asked.

"No." she sighed, wiping her face, smearing the sludge on her face. "I'm not."

"You can see me?" the woman asked, eyes large in surprise and a smile on her face. "You can hear me?"

"Yes." the tearful woman nodded. "Why wouldn't I be able to?"

"Oh, just because."

"Where am I?" she asked.

"Barry Island." the other woman replied, sitting down next to her. "Wales." she added helpfully. "I'm Annie, by the way." she held out her hand.

"I'm..." the woman faltered, reluctantly shaking Annie's hand. "I don't know who I am." she sobbed. "I don't know who I am, or how I got here."

"Oh dear." Annie said, stopping short of putting a comforting arm around the other woman, realizing just how malnourished she looked. "I live nearby, how about you come home with me and you can clean up a bit, and we'll try to find a way to help you."

"Thank you." the mystery woman said as she used her tattered sleeve to wipe her tears, smearing yet more of the sludge.

"Come along then." Annie said, getting to her feet. "You can take a nice hot bath...maybe two." she added as they walked along. "I'll find some clean clothes for you to wear. And something to eat."

"Thank you." the woman repeated.

"You're welcome." Annie said as they headed up the street to Honolulu Heights. She was determined to help this stranger. It felt good to help others. She just hoped her housemates wouldn't be too upset by her decision to help.


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks to those who've added this to their alerts!**

* * *

><p>Annie paced back and forth in the front room nervously. She'd brought a total stranger, someone who was a stanger to themselves even, into their home. So much had happened and they were still on edge. George and Nina were gone and she and Mitchell were still dealing with that. And now, with a baby in the house, things were more chaotic then ever. And, to top things off, Tom and Hal were living there and they were all getting settled and used to one another. This was not the time to add yet another person to the house.<p>

"I couldn't have left her there, alone, lost and confused, crying in the park." she said, half to herself, half rehearsing lines from a speech she felt certain she would have to give to the three men. "She's obviously one of us...well not necessarily a ghost, werewolf or vampire, but she's not completely human either..." Her words trailed off as she heard the baby crying from her nursery. Taking a deep breath, she headed for the stairs, taking them two at a time and heading for Eve's room. She could hear water sloshing around in the bathroom, so she assumed the mystery woman was still washing up.

"Do you need anything?" she asked, deciding to quickly ask on her way up.

"No." the other woman replied. "Well, actually, I could use some clean clothes, if that's not too much trouble?"

"Oh, no, not at all." Annie laughed nervously. "I'll make sure you have some waiting for you."

"Thank you."

"Clean clothes." she muttered to herself as she headed to the nursery only to find Eve asleep again. Checking on the sleeping infant, she assured herself that the girl was clean and dry and set off to get some clothes. "Where am I going to get some clothes from?" she asked herself as she stopped in the hall and looked around. She didn't have any clothes, she had no need for them, and all of Nina's things had been given to charity. That left Mitchell, Tom or Hal that would have to donate the use of their clothes for a short time.

She decided quickly that taking Hal's clothing to give to a complete stranger, even temporarily, was not a good idea. He was far too anal about those sorts of things. Tom's wardrobe consisted entirely of sleevless shirts and shorts. Mitchell...she supposed Mitchell would be kind enough to allow the woman the use of a pair of sweatpans and an old shirt. It was temporary after all.

"Hello?" the woman's Welsh accent drifted down the hall.

"Oh, you're all set?" Annie asked as she approached her. "I still have to grab something for you to wear."

"Okay." the woman said. "I was wondering if you had a pair of scissors." she fingered her hair. "It's a rat's nest, so I was just going to cut it."

"Oh, of course." Annie nodded. "I can help if you like."

"Thanks." the woman said yet again.

"Well, how about you go down the hall, second door on your left, there's a bed all made up for you." Annie said as she pointed down the hall. "I'll be right back with some clothes and scissors."

"Sounds good." the woman said, setting off down the hall. It was all she could do to keep herself from trembling. She found the room and looked around, taking in her surroundings before gingerly sitting down on the edge of the bed. She was scared. She had spent the entire hour in the bath trying to force herself to remember something, anything, that might tell her who she was. It was so frustrating. Tiny bits and pieces of memories came to her, but so quickly she coulnd't piece anything together. The thing she could remember the most was darkness and pain. Her hand went to her stomach, where when she undressed for her bath she found a large, raised scar. She could feel it through the thin fabric of her bathrobe. She knew that it must have been a savage wound to leave such a scar, but try as she might, she could not remember where it came from.

"Here we are." Annie said, appearing at the door, holding a pair of scissors and clutching a pile of clothing to her chest. "They're going to be a bit roomy, but we're a bit short on women's clothes." she laughed nervously.

"Thank you." the woman said quietly as she took the clothes and set them on the bed.

"Yes, well, how about we see to your hair." Annie suggested. "If you'd just sit in this chair here." she said as she pulled a wooden chair towards the center of the room. "We'll see what we can do."

Annie set to work, cautiously at first not wanting to ruin anything. As she went along, she realised that there wasn't much to salvage. There were so many knots in the other woman's hair, she had no choice but to cut her hair short. Very short.

"It's going to be very easy to maintain." she explained, trying to sound enthusiastic. "I'm afraid it's going to be very short."

"That's fine." the woman said leaning her head back to look at her. "Do what you must."

"Okay then." Annie took a deep breath and began cutting. After about fifteen minutes, she felt she had done all she could. She ran her hand through the now short hair to get rid of any clippings that might be clinging and stepped back. It hung to just about the middle of the woman's ears, dark bits of renegade hair sticking out here and there.

"It looks good." the woman said as she looked into the mirror that hung above the room's dresser. "Thank you."

"You're welcome..." Annie said. "I don't suppose you've had any luck remembering your name at least?" she asked hopefully. "I just think it would be nice if I knew what to call you."

"I haven't remembered, I'm sorry." she shook her head, playing with the dramatically shorter hair. It was well past her shoulders when Annie had started, and now she felt nearly bald.

"Would you mind horribly if we just picked something to call you?" Annie asked. "It'll be good to have a name to use when I introduce you to my housemates."

"You can call me whatever you like." the woman replied, shivering from a combination of cold and nerves.

"Oh, you'd probably like to get dressed." Annie realized suddenly the other woman was still in her robe. "You go ahead and do that, and I'll be waiting down stairs. I'll make some tea."

"Okay." the nameless woman nodded. "I'll be down soon."

"Oh, I forgot!" Annie stopped suddenly as she headed out of the room. "Well, since there aren't any women in this house, at least none who can change their clothes, there no..umm, well, there are no...under things."

"That's fine." the woman shrugged.

"Oh, okay then." she smiled as she turned to the door once more. She tried to remember a time when she was alive that she ever went without something on under her clothes.

"Annie?" Mitchell's voice called out as she stood at the stove waiting for the kettle to boil.

"You're home early." she said in surprise, not having finished her speech.

"I'm sorry." he said as he stared at the obviously startled woman. "Would you like me to leave and come back later?"

"Would you?" she asked hopefully.

"Um, I was being sarcastic." he explained. "What's wrong with you?" he looked to the counter top and saw a plate of sandwiches. "Who are you making tea for?"

"Hal and Tom." she replied without thinking.

"They're at work until eight." he reminded her. "What's going on here, Annie?"

"I found a ..."

"Oh hell." Mitchell groaned, dreading what was coming.

"No, it's not bad." she rushed to calm him.

"Who or what did you find?" he asked as he braced himself.

"A woman." she answered.

"You found a woman?" he stared at her. "And brought her back here..."

"She has amnesia I think." she explained. "She was just crying in the park, I couldn't leave her there, Mitchell."

"Amnesia."

"Yes." she nodded. "I know that this isn't the best time, but I want to help her."

"Why?" Mitchell asked. "She's not a lost dog, Annie. You can't keep every sad soul that you find. If she's suffering from amnesia, we should take her to the hospital."

"She's one of us." she spat out. "Well, perhaps not exactly one of us, but she can see me, she can talk to me, Mitchell!"

"Annie..." Mitchell sighed.

"Excuse me." the woman in question opened the kitchen door just enough to pop her head in. "Is this a bad time?"

"No." Annie said as she took the other woman by the hand and brought her over. "This is Mitchell, one of my housemates."

"Hello." the woman nodded.

"Hi." he replied with a smile.

"I don't mean to be a bother, but I was wondering if I could get something to eat." the woman asked. "I'm starving."

Mitchell stared at her as Annie took her to the table and set out a plate of sandwiches and some tea in front of her. She did look rather pathetic sitting there, a very thin frame poking out from the over-sized clothes she was wearing. His clothing if he wasn't much mistaken.

"Well, you really are hungry, aren't you?" Annie asked as she watched in surprise as the woman inhaled the sandwiches.

"I can't remember the last time I had something to eat." she said as she washed down her third sandwich with some tea.

At her last statement, Annie glanced over at Mitchell and she knew that she had his vote to let their visitor stay, for a short time at least. How could he throw a starving woman with amnesia out on the streets? Annie would never let him hear the end of it, first off.

"So long as Tom and Hal agree..." Mitchell didn't even get to finish his sentence before Annie threw her arms around him and squeezed him.

"Thank you." she smiled. "We need to pick a name for her."

"What?"

"She doesn't want to refer to me as 'that woman'." their guest answered for Annie as she poured herself more tea.

"Exactly." Annie nodded. "So impersonal. So she said I could find a name for her that we can use until she remembers what she's called."

"Of course." Mitchell muttered as Annie rushed from the kitchen.

Looking down at his watch he saw that there was only a couple of hours before Tom and Hal would return and then they could discuss this issue as a group.


	3. Chapter 3

"Have you had any luck with anything yet?" Owen asked as he came to a stop on the side of Gladstone Road.

"Nothing in Swansea." Gwen replied. "No one has even noticed anything odd."

"We have one more place to hit here in Cardiff." Ianto informed both Gwen and Owen. "So far, no joy."

"Well, I've just arrived in Barry." Owen said as he turned off his engine and climbed out of his small sports car. "I'll poke around, ask some questions and see if I can find anything useful."

"With as often as the rift is opening, something has got to be coming through." Jack said. "Let us know what you find, Owen."

"Yeah, I kinda already planned on letting you lot know if I found anything." Owen snapped before hanging up. "Does he think I'm an idiot?" he muttered before setting off down the street.

Owen had been in a foul mood for the last week or so. He didn't know why, he couldn't quite put his finger on what had been bothering him. Obviously, it didn't help seeing his co-workers all happy and lovey dovey with their respective partners. Gwen had just announced that she and Rhys were expecting their first baby, Jack and Ianto were their usual, can't-keep-our-hands-off-one another selves and even Tosh had someone. Tosh! And yet here he was, alone. Oh, of course he had the occassional conquest and one night stand, but nothing solid, nothing lasting. He was almost afraid to admit it, but he was jealous of the others and the stability they had all found. He guessed that he had put his finger on it, just then, as he walked along. He was alone and bitter.

"Watch where you're going, would ya?" a short man growled as he nearly fell over when Owen, preoccupied by how pathetic he was, didn't notice the man and bumped into him.

"Sorry, mate." he apologized. He was starting to walk off when he decided to ask the man, "Excuse me, I was wondering if you'd noticed anything odd going on around here."

"Odd how?" the man asked, eying Owen suspiciously.

"Anything really." Owen shrugged. "Any strange people...or anything...suddenly show up?" he asked, barely stopping himself from asking if the man had seen any weevils or blowfish prancing about.

"Only odd thing has been some homeless people have been showing up." the man replied, distaste for the people he mentioned evident. "A few of them up at hospital, amnesia or some such nonsense."

"Really?" Owen was surprised. "Normal people?"

"What do you mean 'normal people'?" the man asked impatiently. "Look, I've got to go, my wife's got tea waiting for me." he turned and left without giving Owen a chance to say anything more.

"Friendly place so far." he groaned as a chilly wind kicked up. "This is gonna be hellish." he zipped up his coat and began walking yet again, looking down once in a while at the device he held in his hand. It looked like an MP3 player to most people strolling by, but he was able to monitor rift activity with it. One of Tosh's little inventions...with the help of her boyfriend, a fellow computer geek.

Everything seemed to be quiet at the moment. No sign of activity. More than likely there was tons of it happening in Dublin, Glasgow and Holyhead. Just his luck, drive down here for good reason. Well, other than the fact that he'd been told an above average number homeless people had appeared, and they had amnesia at that. After stopping to ask a few more people, Owen got the same response. If he hoped to learn anything he knew he was going to have go to Barry Hospital.

* * *

><p>Owen made his way to the nurse's station and asked if a Dr. Noel Ellis was available to talk. The nurse behind the desk smiled politely, asked him to wait a moment and turned to pick up the phone. Owen looked around while he waited. He'd picked up local paper at a news agent's and found an article about the homeless amnesia patients that had appeared. It listed Dr. Ellis as the man in charge of the cases. He was the person Owen needed to talk to in order to see if there was any connection between the rift activity and these people suddenly appearing. He'd gotten a hold of Jack and the others and told them to look into the same thing in Cardiff and Swansea.<p>

"Dr. Harper?" a man's soft-spoken voice barely caught Owen's attention. "I was told you need to talk to me."

"Yes." Owen smiled, shaking the man's hand. "I read in the paper you were taking care of the amnesia patients."

"I am, yes." the tall, thin man nodded. "What is it that you need?" he asked. "Did you by any chance recognize one of my patients?" he sounded hopeful.

"No, I'm sorry, I haven't seen any photos." Owen shook his head. "I'm here about these sudden appearances."

"In what capacity?"

"Can I talk to you in private?" Owen asked.

"Yes, I'm sure one of the exam rooms is empty." he led him to one of the exam rooms and shut the door behind him. "You'll understand of course I should have to leave if I'm paged."

"Oh, yeah, of course." Owen understood completely, having been in that position before, even if it had been years since.

"So, you were telling me why you were so interested in these patients." Dr. Ellis pulled forward the small wheeled stool and sat down.

"Yes, I was." Owen was unsure really of how to proceed. He could simply explain to the man honestly why he was so interested, or he could come up with some story. What story could he come up with though that the man would believe? Of course, if he told the doctor the truth, he'd probably think he was mad. "Have you heard of something called Torchwood?" he asked, deciding it would be easier for the other man to think him insane.

"Torchwood?" the man laughed. "I've heard some story of secret society that deals with extraterrestrial activity, everyone has."

"Not a secret society." Owen corrected. "Secret organization, yes, society no."

"It's real?" Dr. Ellis smiled. "Really?" he laughed again. "That's brilliant!" he clapped. "Do you think these people are aliens? Do they mean us harm?"

Owen stared at the man and, if he had to be honest, was a bit frightened at the fact that this man was a doctor. "I don't know." he answered honestly. "That's why I was wondering if I could talk to them."

"Well, I suppose.."

"Great, when can I talk to them?" Owen asked.

"Only one or two are awake at the moment." Dr. Ellis replied, getting to his feet. "Follow me." he opened the door and headed out of the room and to a door leading to the stairs.

"You don't have a lift?" Owen asked as they started heading up.

"Of course we do." the man nodded. "I hate the things though. I always take the stairs." he explained as he opened the door the fourth floor.

"I see." Owen sighed as he continued to follow him.

"The first person I'll take you to see is someone we call Morris." Dr. Ellis said as he knocked at Morris' door. "Hello, Morris." he said as he popped his head into the room. "I have someone here who would like to talk to you. Is that okay?"

"Is it someone I know?" Morris asked hopefully.

"I don't think so, no." Dr. Ellis shook his head. "I'm sorry." he moved aside so Owen could enter the room.

"Hello, Morris." Owen said with a smile. "Do you mind if I sit and have a chat with you for a bit?" he asked before taking a seat in the chair that sat in the corner.

"No, I suppose not." Morris sighed. "I was hoping you were someone I knew."

"I'm sorry." he said. "I do want to try to help though, if you'll let me."

"If you can." Morris said.

"Let's see what I can do." Owen said. "Do you remember anything before being in Barry?"

"No." was the one word reply without any hesitation. "I just remember wandering about in the park. A nice young couple found me and put me up for the night before bringing me here."

Owen finished his chat with Morris about half an hour later and walked out of the room to find Dr. Ellis waiting for him. "Are you still putting information in the paper?" he asked.

"Yes, we're running a daily notice." he nodded.

"Okay, keep doing that, we'll see how many more come in while we try to help the ones we have here now." Owen said. "Do you know of a decent hotel around here?" he asked, stifling a yawn. "Cardiff isn't far, but I don't feel like making the drive every day."

"Aberthaw House." Ellis replied without hesitation. "Good, clean and cheap."

"My kinda place." Owen smiled. "I'll be back in the morning." he said.

"I'll be here." Dr. Ellis shook Owen's hand, happy for help in trying to figure out where these people belonged. And to work with Torchwood, that made it even better.


End file.
